The present invention relates to a sports training aid and more particularly, to a hitting training aid that can quickly and detachably be installed in the sporting implement for hitting training.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,107 discloses a training aid for developing strength and coordination for a person's swing in swinging a sporting implement, such as a baseball bat, used to strike an object. This design of training aid, as shown in FIGS. 1–4 includes a plurality of vanes 7 attached to first and second collars 8,9. This structure of training aid is still not satisfactory in function because of the following drawbacks:
1. The mounting and dismounting procedures of the training aid are complicated and time wasting. During installation, the user must fasten the retaining portions 71 and 72 of every vane 7 to the slots 81,82,91,92 at the first and second collars 8,9 respectively. When detaching the training aid from the sporting implement 90, the user must disengage the retaining portions 71 and 72 of every vane 7 from the slots 81,82,91,92 at the first and second collars 8,9 respectively.
2. The vanes 7 attached and the first and second collars 8,9 are different members that must be separately made with different molds. Further, for fitting different sizes of sporting implements, different sizes of training aid parts should be prepared, thereby resulting in a high manufacturing cost.
3. The slot 73 in each vane 7 has a certain length. After installation of a belt (not shown) in the slots 73 of the vanes 7, the belt may slip in the slots 73.
The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a hitting training aid that can quickly and detachably be installed in the sporting implement for hitting training. It is another object of the present invention to provide a hitting training aid, which is inexpensive to manufacture. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a hitting training aid, which fits sporting implements having different diameters. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a hitting training aid, which can be used with a golf club for gold ball hitting training.
To achieve these and other objects of the present invention, the hitting training aid comprises three vane devices injection-molded from plastics each vane device having a flat vane body and smoothly arched top and bottom locating plates disposed near top and bottom ends of the inner vertical side of the flat vane body for enabling the vane devices to be adjustably connected to one another around the sporting implement through a plug joint, and two fastening belts inserted through insertion slots in the flat vane body of each vane device and fastened up to affix the vane devices to the sporting implement. By means of adjusting the engaging depth of respective plug rods in the respective plugholes, the hitting training aid fits sporting implements having different diameters. Further, top and bottom stop devices are attached when the training aid is used with a golf club.